It’s back to the news biz for us here at The Outlook as our annual two-week summer break came to an end last Friday.
How great is that, huh? Come back to work after two weeks off *on* a Friday? Not only that, but it was payday too. It felt like getting paid for one day’s work.
My goal for those two weeks and change was to stay "at home" and rediscover what we have here in Saskatchewan; to see some things that I've never seen, do things that I’ve never done, and remind myself of all the cool things one can do without having to leave provincial limits.
Was my summer break technically what is called a ‘staycation’? I didn’t leave Saskatchewan, but man oh man, did I ever log some miles.
Tuesday, July 31: Like a kid who doesn’t have the patience to wait for everyone to open gifts on Christmas morning, I kickstarted my break by ducking out of the office a couple hours before closing time, treating myself that night to a homecooked meal of a steak, lobster tails, garlic mashed potatoes and peaches n’ cream corn.
Thursday, August 2: I hit the road at 8:30 in the morning and bound for the town of Eastend, where I looked forward to taking in the sights of the T. Rex Discovery Centre. Eastend itself was this great-looking town that’s nestled in the hills down there; driving into it, you almost think your GPS is playing games with you, but the land opens up and shows off this unique little town surrounded in hills. At the Centre, I met Scotty – a full-size skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was found in the area back in the 1990’s. I learned about Scotty’s discovery and excavation, saw all sorts of other cool fossils and skeletal remains – like a piece of Triceratops bone that had T-Rex tooth marks embedded in it – but the crème de la crème was having my photo taken with Scotty himself (could also be a her, they don’t quite know). A photo with a T-Rex? That’s one off the bucket list.
Tuesday, August 7: I was back on the road, this time for two destinations. First, I hit up the Royal Saskatchewan Museum down in Regina, where I saw even more dinosaur artifacts and other cool things, such as a timeline of earth’s earliest other creatures, as well as displays touching on the earliest Indigenous peoples and settlers in the province. Elsewhere in the Queen City, I visited the Saskatchewan Science Centre, which hosted an incredible exhibit detailing the history of rock n’ roll. There was memorabilia such as glasses from Elvis and Elton John, Michael Jackson’s leather jacket from ‘Thriller’, even a hat belonging to Slash of Guns n’ Roses, as well as iconic rock photography and instruments that people could play. You could even duplicate the ‘Abbey Road’ album cover for a cool photo op, and as far as artwork goes, there was nothing cooler than a mosaic of the Beatles created entirely out of pieces of vinyl records. For a huge music buff, this was amazing.
From Regina, I drove over to Moose Jaw and went on the infamous tunnels tour that touches on Al Capone’s connections to the city. It was quite entertaining and very unique, and afterwards I bought a cool book in the gift shop, ‘The Photographer’s Guide to Saskatchewan.’
Saturday, August 11: At this point, it was becoming difficult to plan awesome excursions that would involve shooting some great photos due to the smoke billowing into the province from the BC fires, but my brother and I took this day to drive up to Candle Lake, where my family spent many summers when we were kids. I hadn’t been up there in three years, but Brendon hadn’t been up there in almost twenty, and I think he really enjoyed reliving his childhood a bit. We went swimming, play mini-golf, ate some junk food, bought some gift shop items (a wolf flask and bear shot glass for me), and took in the sights before heading home that night. Next time, I just hope it isn’t so smoky.
Thursday, August 16: The day before I came back to work, I drove down south of Beechy to take in the famous sandcastles that I’ve heard so much about. Unfortunately, another smoky day in the region, but not nearly as bad as other days, and it was still some fantastic scenery. It’s a part of the Lake Diefenbaker area that I had never seen before, and I’m glad I went. To discover something new about your local region is pretty cool.
Those are perhaps the biggest highlights. In the meantime and in between time, I enjoyed spending time with friends and family, such as the day my mother, brother and I went mini-golfing in Rosetown before supper and a movie down at the drive-in, as well as this past weekend when dozens of us got together up at Pike Lake to surprise my sister Laurel and brother-in-law Shawn with a 30th wedding anniversary party.
The break may be over, but the summer sure isn’t. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks ahead, and I suspect it’s going to be a warmer fall than usual.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
